The organization of the project “Tomorrow starts today” by the associations ATCE-Speranta Ramniceana, RJOS „Apvalus stalas“ and Medias Local Youth Council offered us the opportunity to exchange experiences in the field of youth policy with two other groups: one from Medias, Romania, and another from Rokiškis, Lithuania. The project was held in Daugirdiskes, Lithuania, in a specialized training center.

Firstly, the project was informative and after that it was carried out in secure and logical steps to theory,  reasoning, arguments and practice

On the first meeting with our new colleagues we talked general things about the youth’s involvement in the political and administrative life of our towns and had some fun doing interactive games to know more about each other.

During the week we had thoroughgoing study classes: What is advocacy?, What can it change?, What can we do with it?, Who can help us reach our objectives?, What tools do we need?, How to do advocacy.

After these courses, how to do advocacy in daily activities- in school (individual or group projects), other personal projects or used for the benefit of the community- became clear for all those involved in the project.

Between and after the courses we managed to know even more about each other, about our traditions or foods and dances- we had an Lithuanian night, an Romanian night and the Karaoke evening.

The team from Ramnicu Sarat was formed by four girls and two boys: Strimbei Daniela, Chiosea Diana, Adamache Carla Iohana, Ceausu Maria Veronica, Adamache Marko Luigi and Jercan Alexandru. The fact that we had similar ages, ideas and objectives helped us work better together and with the other teams. The projects of our group consisted in brainstorming for practical ways to inform the citizens in our town about different objectives and youth policy.

The people with which I worked in this project, “Tomorrow starts today”, were extremely open to new information and opinions, answered me all my questions and quickly became some of my closest friends.

I was surprised when I realized that such an apparently easy thing as advocacy can hold such complexity and, whether we realize it or not, we use it every day.

One thing I regretted was that the time passed so fast, but my satisfaction is that I learned a lot of interesting and useful things –for which I hope I will have the opportunities to use in real life- and we will meet again in October and compare our achievements and experiences from the local activities which will be carried out during the summer.

I am proud that I was able to be a part of this project, meet such wonderful people, learn so many new things and visit a beautiful country, Lithuania.

Veronica Maria Ceausu